Open Research Online - Open ...

Page created by Shirley Rowe

Society

English

Like
Share
Embed
Fullscreen
Slides
Download HTML
Download PDF
Abuse

←

→

Page content transcription

If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below

Open Research Online
The Open University’s repository of research publications
and other research outputs

Peaceful Protest: Suffrage and the Great Pilgrimage in
Yorkshire, 1913
Student Dissertation
 How to cite:
 Thorpe, Amy Charlotte (2021). Peaceful Protest: Suffrage and the Great Pilgrimage in Yorkshire, 1913. Student
 dissertation for The Open University module A826 MA History part 2.

For guidance on citations see FAQs.

c 2021 Amy Charlotte Thorpe

                      https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Version: Redacted Version of Record

Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright
owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies
page.

                                      oro.open.ac.uk

Amy Thorpe                                                          Dissertation

    Peaceful Protest: Suffrage and the Great Pilgrimage in Yorkshire, 1913

                            Amy Charlotte Thorpe
                      BA (Hons.) York St. John University

                 A dissertation submitted to The Open University
                         for the degree of MA in History

                                 January 2021
                            WORD COUNT: 15,550

                                        i

Amy Thorpe                                                                    Dissertation

                                       Abstract

This study investigates the non-militant Great Pilgrimage of the National Union of

Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) as it moved through four localities in

Yorkshire during the summer of 1913. With much of the historiography of the

suffrage movement focusing on the militant movements of the Women’s Social and

Political Union, the significant contribution of the National Union’s campaign efforts

have been largely overlooked, particularly on a local and regional level. This

research examines the development, intention, strategy, reception and objectives of

the Pilgrimage and assesses the success of this constitutional form of campaign. By

exploring the existing militant, non-militant and anti-suffrage networks in the region,

the origins of a march as a form of suffrage campaign and the way in which the

Great Pilgrimage was received throughout the county allows for a greater

understanding of the complex nature of suffragism in Yorkshire. By 1913, the

campaign for women’s enfranchisement was at a critical juncture, with the NUWSS

seeking a new and striking way to end the deadlock with a disinterested Liberal

government. Their solution was the largest march of the entire British suffrage

movement, which moved through almost every corner of England in order to

demonstrate the popularity and growth of suffrage throughout the country, whilst

gaining further support and cementing their right for enfranchisement. This ambitious

advertisement of non-militant suffrage transected the unique formations of suffrage

networks throughout Yorkshire and exposed the anti-suffrage campaign which co-

existed in parts of the county. The pilgrims experienced divergent responses to their

march throughout their journey through Ripon, Harrogate, Leeds and Wakefield, and

this study investigates the local components which shaped their experience.

                                            ii

Amy Thorpe                                                                   Dissertation

                                Acknowledgements

I would like to extend my unerring gratitude to Dr Rachel Duffett for her invaluable

expertise, guidance and encouragement during the writing of this dissertation. I

would also like to thank the unfailing support of my husband, Paul, for his boundless

belief in me.

                                           iii

Amy Thorpe                                                          Dissertation

                                     Contents

   1. Introduction                                                   1

   2. The Making of the Pilgrimage: Our great spiritual battle       5

   3. The Pilgrimage in Yorkshire: An invitation to the open road   19

   4. Yorkshire Suffragism: Drawing rooms and effigies               31

   5. Conclusion                                                     43

      Bibliography                                                   46

                                         iv

Amy Thorpe                                                                       Dissertation

                                       Declaration

I declare that this dissertation is my own, unaided work and that I have not
submitted it, or any part of it, for a degree at The Open University or at any other
university or institution. Parts of this dissertation are built on work I submitted for
assessment as part of A825.

                                             v

Amy Thorpe                                             Dissertation

             List of Abbreviations

EFF               Election Fighting Fund
ILP               Independent Labour Party
NLOWS             National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage
NUWSS             National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies
WSPU              Women’s Social and Political Union

                      vi

Amy Thorpe                                                                                    Dissertation

                                     Chapter 1: Introduction

When Ida Beaver, the dedicated suffragist from Tyneside, was described as

‘Amazonian’ by the Yorkshire Post, we are compelled to consider ‘en amazone’, the

women of revolutionary France who incited insurrection on the avenues of Paris,

dismantling the demarcation between public and private space and operating in

streets to allow their message to be heard. 1 Over a century later, countless men and

women took to the streets throughout England to continue the peaceable fight of

their own revolution; one of female enfranchisement.

The largest march in the entirety of the British suffrage campaign, the Great

Pilgrimage took place in 1913 in the last summer before the onset of the First World

War. Organised by the biggest suffrage organisation in the country, the National

Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the march has been a largely

forgotten but deeply significant action of the suffrage movement which engaged

thousands of people from across the country to make the ‘pilgrimage’ throughout

England, culminating in a mass demonstration in Hyde Park, London. This often

difficult, dangerous and arduous act was a symbolic gesture of co-operation, unity

and a demonstration of the far-reaching support of women’s enfranchisement across

the country. Going further than any other march, demonstration or procession that

had come before, the Pilgrimage was the embodiment of large networks of suffrage

societies publicising their cause by non-militant means. Ensuring a distinction was

made between militant suffragettes and constitutional suffragists, the National Union

intended to eclipse the rhetoric of suffragist militancy, arson attacks and window

1
 Dominique Godineau, The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution, trans. by Katherine Streip (1988;
London: University of California Press, 1998), p. 7.

                                                    1

Amy Thorpe                                                                                        Dissertation

smashing by ‘appeals to reason, not to force’ and as an ‘act of devotion’ to the

cause. 2 By the peaceful demonstration of ordinary women, it denounced acts of

militancy and appealed to the general public with the ‘living voice’, with suffragists

making themselves seen and heard by those who have never looked or listened

before. 3

Focusing on four locations throughout the North Riding and West Riding of Yorkshire

of Ripon, Harrogate, Leeds and Wakefield, this study is a localised examination of

the journey of the Pilgrimage throughout Yorkshire. By investigating the extent of

existing suffrage networks in the region, this research contributes to the

understanding of the distinct regional and local characteristics which shaped the way

in which the Pilgrimage was received and understood throughout the county. By

interrogating valuable primary source materials such as contemporary journals,

periodicals, pamphlets, leaflets, photographs, correspondence, minutes and

newspapers, this study examines the formulation, intentions and tactics of the

Pilgrimage, the reception of the pilgrims in each locality, the way in which the

Pilgrimage was reported and the nature of suffrage campaign, suffrage networks,

militant societies and anti-suffrage campaigners throughout Yorkshire. By assessing

this national campaign on a local scale, this study contextualises the action of the

Nation Union’s campaign strategy and evaluates its effectiveness on a regional level.

I will argue that the Pilgrimage was overall a deeply important and significant event

in suffrage campaigning, and that its presence in Yorkshire was predominantly

undermined by circumstantial events and well-timed anti-suffrage components. This

2
  The Pilgrimage. What Does it Mean?, July 1913, p. 57, digital resource, LSE Women’s Rights Collection,
‘Pamphlets and Leaflets: National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies Leaflets to 1914’
https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/browse#suffragecollection and accessed on 11 November 2020
3
  “On Pilgrimage”, The Common Cause, 13 June 1913, p. 3.

                                                       2

Amy Thorpe                                                                                   Dissertation

study demonstrates the symbiotic relationships of both militant and non-militant

suffrage societies and organisations and presents a localised picture of the co-

operation between suffrage networks on a local level, culminating in the identification

of the complex and integrated nature of suffragism in the county. This study argues

that women’s bodies as peaceful political figures were still subject to violence as they

made their claim to polity in the public sphere and examines the reasons for this

spatialised culture in some destinations in Yorkshire. Little research has been

conducted in the area of violence towards non-violent suffrage campaigners, and this

study contributes to the understanding of that violence on a local level. This study

argues that outside of that violence, the Pilgrimage contributed to the awareness of

non-militantism in Yorkshire and the Pilgrimage’s ability to join ordinary people from

across the county in a collective political act.

The historiography for the Pilgrimage in Yorkshire has for the most part only been

examined tangentially, with Harry Fairburn’s examination of the Pilgrimage in

Harrogate and Deborah Scriven’s account of the Pilgrimage in Wakefield the only

exception to this. 4 Jane Robinson, Lisa Tickner and Elizabeth Crawford’s work

provide invaluable material relating to the national picture of the National Union and

the Pilgrimage as a whole. 5 Jill Liddington’s examination of the Yorkshire suffrage

movement provides a thorough investigation of the individual contributions of

prominent local suffrage campaigners, whilst June Hannam’s contribution to the

study of working-class women in Leeds provides key local components to the lives of

4
  Harry Fairburn, 'The Women's Suffrage Movement in Ripon, Northallerton and Harrogate: 1870-1913', The
Local Historian, 49 (2019), 148-154; Deborah Scriven, 'The Pilgrim's Progress: Wakefield welcomes the
Suffragette Pilgrimage of 1913', Wakefield Historical Society Journal, 16 (2012), 1-6.
5
  Jane Robinson, Hearts and Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote
(London: Doubleday, 2018); Lisa Tickner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907-14
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1989); Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide
1866-1928 (London: Routledge, 1999).

                                                    3

Amy Thorpe                                                                                     Dissertation

women during this period. 6 As Sandra Stanley Holton reflected upon emerging

masculine identities during the beginning of the twentieth century, this dissertation

examines how peaceful physical activism like the Pilgrimage played a role in female

identities, women’s emergence as political public bodies and the way in which the

public responded to peaceful activism. 7 Julie Shultz examines the physical activism

of women, arguing that the strenuous physical activity associated with marches like

the Pilgrimage discredits the myth of women’s frailty as an argument against

enfranchisement, assessed in this dissertation through four Yorkshire towns and

cities. 8 This study will also reflect upon ideas of femininity, womanliness and the

concept of physical forms of suffrage activism impacting the Pilgrimage and its

reception. By constructing an identity and a visual culture which was visibly non-

militant, I will assess the ways the Pilgrimage, as it journeyed through villages, towns

and cities, collectively shared their cause for female enfranchisement, and

consequently made its impact on Yorkshire.

6
  Jill Liddington, Rebel Girls: Their Fight for the Vote (London: Virago Press, 2006); June Hannam, 'The
Employment of Working-Class Women in Leeds, 1880-1914' (PhD thesis, University of Sheffield, 1984)
7
  Sandra Stanley Holton, Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement (London: Routledge,
1996), pp. 222-223.
8
  Julie Schultz, 'The Physical is Political: Women's Suffrage, Pilgrim Hikes and the Public Sphere', The
International Journal of the History of Sport, 27 (2010), 1133-1153 (p. 3).

                                                     4

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

Chapter 2: The Making of the Pilgrimage: ‘Our great spiritual battle’ 1

‘We claim the right to serve our land,
And who should say us nay?’ 2

On the 17 April 1913, in an Executive Committee meeting for the National Union of

Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), a march was proposed by chairman of the West

Midland Federation and president of the Shropshire Women’s Suffrage Society,

Katherine Harley. 3 Taken up by the Organisational Committee the following day, the

march was to become the largest and most ambitious campaign of the National

Union that was to ever take place.

The Pilgrimage had been suggested at a critical moment in the history of the

suffrage campaign. By the summer of 1913, Tickner argues the outlook for women’s

suffrage was looking bleak. 4 The movement needed to re-establish tactics and

regain focus after the withdrawal of the Franchise and Registration Bill of 1913 which

was intended to be an open to a women's suffrage as well as the defeat of

Representation of the People (Women) Bill, known as the Dickenson Bill. 5 The

Dickenson Bill proposed to give the vote to women householders and wives of

householders aged over twenty-five. The defeat of the Bill was seen as a betrayal to

many, particularly key Liberals such as Millicent Fawcett, leader of the National

Union. Blaming Anti-Suffragists and ‘pledge breakers’ in the Liberal government and

1
“On Pilgrimage”, The Common Cause, 13 June 1913, p. 3.
2
“Song of the Suffrage Pilgrims”, The Common Cause, 20 June 1913, p. 12.
3
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (London: Routledge,
1999), p. 275.
4
Lisa Tickner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907-14 (London: Chatto & Windus,
1989), p. 140.
5
Tickner, p. 140.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

Irish Parliamentary Party, the NUWSS believed the government were prepared to

sacrifice anything, including women’s suffrage, to remain in power. 6

The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) increased their militancy in

response to the political setbacks. The WSPU newspaper, The Suffragette in April

1913 carried the headline ‘The Women’s Revolution – Reign of Terror – Fire and

Bombs’, referencing ‘militancy on an unprecedented scale’ which was followed by

multiple reports of arson and bomb attacks including setting fire to churches, houses

and golf-courses. 7 The introduction of the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill

Health) Act, known as the Cat and Mouse Act in April 1913 was demonstrative of the

short-sightedness and exasperation of the Liberal government in response to

heightened militancy. 8 The Cat and Mouse Act allowed female prisoners who had

been on hunger strike and force fed to be released for a specified number of days in

which to recuperate and regain their health. Once their licence expired, the released

women were sought for re-arrest, some of whom went willingly, whilst others resisted

arrest, finding refuge in safe houses across the country. Refuge houses and

released suffragettes, including Edith Key’s house in Huddersfield and Leonora

Cohen’s house in Harrogate, were covertly monitored by the state, with the chase

between evading suffragettes and the police, concludes Liddington, a ‘combination

of comic melodrama and something more sinister’. 9 By May, WSPU offices were

raided, many active members such as Lilian Lenton and Kitty Marion adopted

guerrilla tactics to continue their militant activities, whilst the loss of Emily Wilding

Davison in June momentarily brought the entirety of the suffrage movement to a

6
“The New Development in the Policy of the N.U.W.S.S.”, The Common Cause, 23 May 1912, p. 3.
7
"The Women’s Revolution – Reign of Terror – Fire and Bombs", The Suffragette, 11 April 1913, pp. 7-8.
8
UK Parliament [accessed 10 June 2020]
9
Jill Liddington, Rebel Girls: Their Fight for the Vote (London: Virago Press, 2006), pp. 274-275.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

standstill. 10 Robinson states that many people in Britain considered the acts of

Davison as extravagant and hysterical, illustrating the necessity for the NUWSS to

differentiate themselves from the militant approach. 11 Regardless of difference,

however, Davison’s death was a tragedy for the cause and a dark day for all

campaigners, described in a stirring statement by the National Union as a ‘piteous

waste of courage and devotion’. 12

As 1912 and 1913 saw the height of suffrage militancy, the NUWSS was placed in a

difficult position. Criticised by members of the WSPU as being ‘staid’ and ‘incorrigibly

leisurely’ in their approach, the National Union needed to counter this perception with

affirmative action, especially in light of a limited political prospects. 13 Reflecting on

the political landscape preceding the march, Hon. Treasurer of the National Union

Helena Auerbach wrote for the Common Cause, the weekly journal of the NUWSS,

that the Pilgrimage came at a time where there easily could have been a set-back in

enthusiasm for the suffrage cause. With no bill to work towards, no breakthrough or

immediate incentive it was the responsibility of the National Union to engage with a

wider reach and rejuvenated focus. 14 Holton states that without the preparedness of

constitutional suffragists to reassess their strategy at this time, embarking on a

broader movement and a more democratic society, the NUWSS wouldn’t have been

able to prevent a complete collapse of the suffrage movement as a whole. 15

Although the NUWSS had continually advertised its ‘non-party’ status, the National

10
Crawford, pp. 749-752.
11
Jane Robinson, Hearts and Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote
(London: Doubleday, 2018), p. 137.
12
“Responsibility”, The Common Cause, 13 June 1913, p. 4.
13
Pankhurst, E. Sylvia, The Suffrage Movement: An Intimate Account of the Persons and Ideals (London:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1931), p. 643.
14
“After the Pilgrimage”, The Common Cause, 8 August 1913, p. 9.
15
Sandra Stanley Holton, Feminism and Democracy: Women's Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain, 1900-
1918 (Cambridge: CUP, 1986), p. 95.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

Union consistently held a close alignment through its membership to the Liberal

Party. However in 1912, after the failure of the Conciliation Bill, the NUWSS

established the Election Fighting Fund (EFF) in order to relax their non-party strategy

and to support Labour candidates in by-elections. 16 The Common Cause outlined

their new strategy as a development of their present policy, not an abandonment of

it, stating the importance of supporting ‘Labour candidates in constituencies

represented by Liberals whose Women’s Suffrage record is unsatisfactory’, simply,

supporting candidates who have supported the movement and by opposing those

who have ‘caused it harm’. 17 Suffragists, as concluded by Kent, realised the power of

political constructions, and were determined to use them. 18 Whilst this new strategy

for the National Union sought to strengthen the pro-suffrage position in parliament, in

Yorkshire, the ties to the Liberal middle classes, chiefly in the North and East

Ridings, made the new policy more difficult to accept. 19 Liddington argues that,

unlike in Manchester and Lancashire, the Liberal stronghold in Yorkshire meant

there were few active trade unionist women who, if involved in suffrage campaigning

at all, were less likely to join the National Union due the their closeness with their

Liberal employers. 20 The strategy therefore for the National Union was to fight on two

fronts: by forging an electoral alliance with the Labour Party through the foundation

of the EFF and reviewing their unofficial ties with the Liberal Party whilst using the

Pilgrimage to differentiate themselves from militant suffragettes, garner a wider level

of support and rejuvenate the cause in the hearts and minds of the wider public,

particularly the working classes in local communities. The NUWSS would be able to

16
Liddington, p.261.
17
The Common Cause, 23 May 1912, p. 3.
18
Susan Kingsley Kent, Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860-1914 (Princeton: PUP, 1987), pp. 207.
19
Liddington, p.263.
20
ibid

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

demonstrate, throughout every corner of England, that the campaigners were

ordinary women fighting for a cause which was relevant to all, free from elitism,

militancy or autocracy. 21

Once this strategy had been decided, the organisation for the Pilgrimage had to be

done as quickly and efficiently as possible, as there were only two months from its

conception to the first marchers setting foot on the open road. The first tentative

mention of the march was made in the Common Cause just a few weeks after the

proposal was first made. Filed under ‘Notes from Headquarters’ on page seven, the

introduction to a ‘Monster March for Suffragists’ was presented as a great

demonstration which was to be held in July, with simultaneous marches using four

routes through England and Wales, all converging in London. 22 Members of the

National Union were asked, even in this preliminary stage, to start preparations in

the form of financial contributions, to offer hospitality and to lend horses and

conveyances to the marchers. 23 The skeleton of the march had already started to

take shape, and as the weeks continued, a plan for the march began to be refined

and redefined. The following issue of the Common Cause on the 9 May took a new

dedicated, enthusiastic and evangelical tone. Promoted to the third page, news of

the march held a bold new sentiment, referring to the march for the first time as a

‘pilgrimage of grace’ and speaking in the interests of a spiritual cause. 24 Members

were encouraged, whether Christian or not, to feel the ‘moving, living sense, of the

deep spiritual meaning’ of the suffragist movement. 25 Comparable politically focused

pilgrimages such as the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536-7, the Great Pilgrimage, as

21
Robinson, pp. 151-152.
22
“Monster March for Suffragists”, Notes from Headquarters, The Common Cause, 2 May 1913, p.7
23
The Common Cause, p.7.
24
“The Pilgrimage of Grace”, The Common Cause, 9 May 2013, p. 3.
25
The Common Cause, p. 3.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

described by Robinson, allowed a sense of self-sacrifice with a ‘gloss of

cheerfulness’ in the form of hope, love and faith. 26 The newly titled ‘Pilgrimage’ was

promoted with uncompromised positivity, reverence to the cause and a somewhat

naïve determination that the march would be nothing but joyous, with an implicit

ascetic tone. Vicinus concludes that Victorian women had long been considered the

moral and spiritual leaders of the era who had been trained for a life of self-sacrifice,

therefore this form of physical campaign drawing comparisons of religion and

discipline made the Pilgrimage the ideal next step of women’s place in the public

sphere. 27

With the co-operation and support of over four hundred societies and seventeen

federations which made up the union the foundations of the Pilgrimage were being

set, the date for the completion of the march was arranged and the main routes were

identified. 28 The deadline for the mass meeting in Hyde Park was finalised for the 26

July 1913, with the committee calculating their routes backwards from the final date.

The main corridors across England were covered, consisting of the Great North

Road, the Watling Street route, the Bath and West Country route, the Portsmouth

road and the Kentish way. Initial intentions were to incorporate a route which would

converge in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, and then to London, however the

logistics became too complex, resulting in the NUWSS’s Scottish Federation

participants joining from Carlisle and Newcastle instead. 29 The large and robust

network of societies and regional federations allowed for direct communication

26
Robinson, p. 143.
27
Martha Vicinus, Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920 (Chicago: CUP,
1985), pp. 249-250.
28
The Common Cause, p. 3.
29
Fletcher, Ian Christopher, Philippa Levine and Laura E. Nym Mayhall, eds, Women's Suffrage in the British
Empire: Citizenship, Nation and Race (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 113.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

between the head office and executive committee alongside the weekly updates

published in the Common Cause. Such societies included some long-standing and

active branches across Great Britain, including societies in Ripon, Harrogate, Leeds

and Wakefield, with Leeds being the largest and most active of the four, boasting a

shop and an office which was able to hold up to eighty people for meetings. 30 This

network allowed for the requests made for accommodation and hospitality, donations

and general assistance to be transmitted quickly and easily.

The Pilgrimage was being organised by the newly formed Pilgrimage Committee

who were tasked with arranging every detail possible under a strict deadline and with

minimal spending. The Committee was run primarily by Katherine Harley who with

militaristic expertise and religious fervour, spearheaded the organisation between

federations and societies with proficiency. 31 The Committee worked to a tight budget,

as the Pilgrimage, Robinson observes, was a way to raise money as well as public

awareness, and therefore no centralised provision was made to subsidise

participants; instead it was the responsibility of the local societies to fundraise and

provide food and accommodation for the pilgrims so that no-one should be prohibited

from joining the Pilgrimage due to lack of money. 32 However, although the intention

was that the Pilgrimage providing an opportunity for all to unite, no matter their

financial position, the largest concern for potential pilgrims was one of economics,

with clothing being the primary concern for NUWSS members. 33 As away from the

tangible practicalities of the march, one of the key strategical components in the

organisation of the Pilgrimage was the visual representation of the suffragists, which

30
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey, (London:
Routledge, 2006), pp. 44-45.
31
Robinson, pp. 151-158.
32
Robinson, p. 153.
33
“On Pilgrimage”, The Common Cause, 13 June 1913, p. 3.

Amy Thorpe                                                                                      Dissertation

included society colours, dress and accessories which intended to differentiate

marchers from their militant counterparts. It was imperative that the imagery of the

NUWSS as non-militant, law-abiding and constitutional suffrage campaigners was

clear, and that amongst the general public, the identity of the suffragists as peaceful

campaigners and not suffragettes was paramount. The Pilgrimage was publicised

through statements to newspapers, society meetings, canvassing, posters and

smaller walks and demonstrations, however, distinctions between suffragettes and

suffragists were still unclear amongst many. 34 The visual representation of the

second wave of the suffrage movement, as Rolley identifies, was complex and

inextricably connected to the Edwardian ‘fashionable’ and ‘feminine’ physical and

psychological ideals of women, including the identification and differentiation

between different factions. 35 Tickner describes the contemporary anxieties

associated with motherhood, social Darwinism, social decline and the Empire,

dropping birth rates and high infant mortality alongside perceived biological

characteristics of femininity as described in The Descent of Man allowed for an

ideology against women’s involvement in public activities. 36 The ‘virtues and vices of

femininity’, Tickner states, was written upon the female body in the form of a

recognisably ‘womanly’ woman, a representation of femininity which held a complex

relationship to the appropriate political social and moral function of women,

especially amongst suffrage campaigners. 37 As Lindsay states, women’s increased

activity in public affairs tested and contested the ideals of feminine behaviour,

definitions of womanhood and the image of femininity. 38 Suffrage campaigners knew

34
   Robinson, p. 158-159.
35
   Katrina Rolley, 'Fashion, Femininity and the Fight for the Vote', Art History, 13 (1990), 47-71 (p. 1).
36
   Tickner, p. 186-189.
37
   Tickner, p. 151-152.
38
   Shelley Lindsay, 'Eighty million women want -?: Women’s Suffrage, Female Viewers and the Body Politic',
Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 16 (1997), 1-22 (p. 1)

                                                     12

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

this, as the necessity of being not only identifiably peaceful and but ‘feminine’ was

focused upon the use of dress, sashes, badges and banners which was used to form

an important part of its visual presentation. The pilgrims, collectively, at least in

intention, needed to differentiate themselves as law-abiding constitutionalists, after

all, they were a walking advertisement for the cause.

Political ideologies in combination with practicalities, uniformity and affordability

became key factors in the debate over clothing, with the eventual decision made that

all pilgrims will be welcome, whatever they wear, however a preference for grey,

navy, white or black coats, skirts and dresses with a blouse in white or to match was

preferred. 39 Pilgrims were instructed, if possible, to adorn the National Union colours

of white, green and scarlet upon sashes, hats, caravans, carts, bicycles, haversacks

and motors as well as wearing the specially made Pilgrimage badge, available for

the cost of 3d, whilst Swan & Edgar, the department store on Regent Street and

Piccadilly in London were chosen providers for hats, coats, blouses and skirts as

well as ribbon available in two sizes in National Union colours. 40 Suffrage colours

created an important sense of identity, as displaying the colours of the NUWSS

orchestrated a form of co-ordination from which different societies could be

recognised nationwide whilst providing the pilgrims with a feeling of belonging and

unity. 41 Whilst the debate over suitable choices of clothing may seem trivial, dress

was significant. Not only did it provide an outward presentation of the campaign and

fulfilment of a practical purpose, it challenged the metaphor of ‘petticoats’ or ‘skirts’

used to perpetuate women as inferior physical and political bodies, intended to

39
“Points About the Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage”, The Common Cause, 13 June 1913, p. 5.
40
The Common Cause, p. 5.
41
Thomas, Zoe, and Miranda Garrett, eds, Suffrage and the Arts: Visual Culture, Politics and Enterprise
(London: Bloomsbury, 2018), p. 13.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

trivialise and diminish physical activism. 42 Through physical toil, spiritual strength

and a ‘symbolic claim on the polity’, the National Union intended to challenge

Edwardian society’s limited definition of femininity and place themselves firmly, and

positively, in the collective consciousness of the country, commanding far reaching

support, all the while proving there was an alternative amongst suffrage campaigners

to militancy. 43

The Pilgrimage was not the first-time the National Union had campaigned in public

spaces in order to spread their message of female enfranchisement. Although the

Pilgrimage was very different to all the forms of public procession, marches,

pageantry and tours which had come before, previous demonstrations had

undoubtedly influenced the conception, organisation and intention of the Pilgrimage

and what it hoped to achieve. The formation of the WSPU in 1903 spurred a second

wave of activism in the campaign for enfranchisement, creating new energy in the

suffrage movement. As Tickner describes, the tactics of the WSPU to increase

visibility in the press created an urgency and encouraged older societies like the

National Union to adopt similar strategies engaging wider public awareness. 44 After

the development of a new constitution and strengthened organisational structure of

the National Union in January 1907, the NUWSS devised their first mass

demonstration, establishing a precedent in the fight for enfranchisement. 45 In what

was to become known as the ‘Mud March’, a march from Hyde Park corner to the

Exeter Hall was held on a rainy February afternoon in London which included three

thousand people from more than forty organisations who collectively marched in the

42
Rolley, p. 2.
43
Schultz, Jaime, 'The Physical is Political: Women's Suffrage, Pilgrim Hikes and the Public Sphere', The
International Journal of the History of Sport, 27 (2010), 1133-1153 (p.1).
44
Tickner, p. 74.
45
Crawford, p. 438.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

first open-air demonstration of non-militants ever held. 46 One of the many to travel

from Yorkshire to take part in the march was the NUWSS executive from

Huddersfield, Dr Edith Pechey-Phipson, who described walking ‘four abreast’, as

banners of red, white and society colours (with help from the newly formed Artists’

Suffrage League) were held up against the wind and rain. 47 This pageantry and

spectacle from all classes, backgrounds and places marching together, tramping

through the mud in solidarity, required courage from all involved, and did not go

unnoticed by the press. The Tribune, the Manchester Guardian, the Daily Mirror, the

Morning Post and The Graphic printed articles, photographs and illustrations of the

marchers and commented on the diverse nature of the participants, the dedication of

those involved and the ‘striking’ nature of the procession. 48 The Mud March became

the foundation for a new form of campaigning, stimulating a trend for further

demonstrations and processions which each aimed to be bigger and more

impressive than the last. The next large-scale NUWSS Demonstration was held on

13 June 1908 in London and took the spectacle of suffrage to the next level, with an

estimated ten to fifteen thousand marchers from across the country including Leeds

and Hull, as well as the inclusion of international participants from Europe, America

and India. 49 The National Union, alongside the International Woman Suffrage

Alliance, then organised The Pageant of Women’s Trades and Professions on 27

April 1909, which aimed to promote women workers, demonstrating the importance,

value and legitimacy of the female workforce and their entitlement to

46
Tickner, pp. 74-75.
47
Liddington, p. 137.
48
The Tribune, 11 February 1907; Manchester Guardian, 11 February 1907, “Snapshots of Incidents of
Suffragettes’ March from Hyde Park to the Strand”, Daily Mirror, 13 February 1907; the Morning Post, 13
February 1907, “The Suffragists’ Progress: Incidents of the Latest London Demonstration”, The Graphic, 16
February 1907, p. 3, cited in Lisa Tickner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907-14
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1989), pp. 74-78.
49
Tickner, pp. 80-87.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

enfranchisement. 50 It was in on 17 June 1911, however, that suffrage procession

reached its pinnacle. If MacKaye was correct in describing such pageantry as ‘poetry

for the masses’, then the Women’s Coronation Procession provided a triumphant

display of civic education and significant public appeal. 51 Organised by the WSPU,

the Women’s Coronation Procession was boldly performed just five days before the

coronation of George V in order to take advantage of the enlivened holiday spirit and

capitalise on the increased numbers of international visitors to London. 52 A

staggering estimated forty to sixty thousand women from at least twenty-eight

suffrage organisations marched through a five mile stretch of central London. 53 The

procession was a symbolic claim of citizenship, invoking historic precedents and

demonstrating, in the fullest form, a contextualisation of sovereignty and patriotism.

From the Pageant of Empire, The Historical Pageant, The March of the Women and

the representations of national identity, the procession evidenced the ‘enormous

value of women’s influence in public life’. 54

Suffrage campaigning that proceeded the Pilgrimage was not one solely focused on

the capital or in the form of mass demonstrations, reliant on the appeal of spectacle,

however. In what Liddington describes as ‘a symbol of liberty’, caravan tours were

just as significant in the act of political persuasion, accessing rural communities

around the country and inspiring future endeavours in local communities. 55 Inspired

by the recent popularity in ‘vanning’ and the Women’s Freedom League members,

50
Tickner, pp. 100-104.
51
Percy MacKaye, The Civic Theatre in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure; a Book of Suggestions (London:
Mitchell Kennerley, 1912), pp.176-177.
52
Tickner, pp. 122-124.
53
Ibid
54
Henry Holiday, “Pageants and National Life”, London Daily News, 28 June 1911, cited in Lisa Tickner, The
Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907-14 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1989), p. 299.
55
Jill Liddington, Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the Census (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2014), p. 27.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

including Katherine Harley’s sister Charlotte Despard and Australian actress Muriel

Matters’ tour of the South East of England in 1908, Nation Union members held their

own caravan tours throughout the country. 56 One ambitious tour, led by Cambridge

graduates Emilie Gardner and Margaret Robertson, toured the North Yorkshire

Moors and the Yorkshire Wolds from August to September 1908. 57 Starting in the

fishing town of Whitby, they travelled through remote rural locations throughout the

North Riding, down to Beverley in the East Riding and then again moving north,

stopping to address crowds of people in each locality. 58 In less than a month, Emilie

Gardner and Margaret Robertson extended their message into communities

untouched by the suffrage cause, penetrating a wider consciousness of the

movement and setting the groundwork for the Pilgrimage five years later as it moved

through Yorkshire. As Charlotte Despard stated, ‘I am more and more convinced that

this is one of the best and least expensive methods of propagandum’, illustrating the

success of the tours and cementing the ideas of physical campaigning which allowed

access to women in rural communities and engaged them in political activity and

debate beyond newspaper headlines and hearsay. 59

The final precursor which inevitably influenced the form and tactical approach of the

Great Pilgrimage were the ‘Women’s March’ and the ‘Pilgrim Hikes’ that came just a

few months before Katherine Harley’s suggestion in April. Originator of the suffrage

‘pilgrim’ march, Florence De Fonblanque, member of the Women’s Freedom

League, New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage and the Conservative

Unionist Women’s Franchise Association amongst others, conducted the Women’s

56
Liddington, pp. 27-29.
57
Liddington, Rebel Girls, p. 205.
58
Liddington, Rebel Girls, pp. 205-211.
59
“Women’s Freedom League Caravan”, Women’s Franchise, 27 August 1908, p. 5.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

March from 12 October to 16 November from Edinburgh to London. 60 The march

numbers were small, but the ambition, spiritual and characterful nature of the

Women’s March clearly made an impact with the National Union, as despite their

lack of participation, the NUWSS saw the value of this form of peaceful physical

activism. Also inspired by Mrs De Fonblanque’s march was Rosalie Gardiner Jones,

who led a march in December 1912 of hundreds of women and men from The Bronx,

one hundred and seventy miles to Albany, New York in just thirteen days, followed

by a larger march to Washington in February 1913. 61

The Pilgrimage denied the pomp and spectacle of the mass processions and

pageantry that had come before, whilst providing a larger impact and greater levels

of participation than the caravan tours or Women’s marches that proceeded it. It

intended to strike a balance between self-sacrifice and political statement, law -

abiding and peaceful, yet assertive and resolute. The Pilgrimage was an

advertisement, as by using the modality of a ‘pilgrimage’ with all the credence of

religious devotion incited into the framework of political propaganda, the Nation

Union aimed to present all, from the Liberal government to the Yorkshire mill worker,

that enfranchisement was rightfully theirs. When Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

declared ‘the greatest demonstration ever held upon British soil fails also to bring a

satisfactory answer to our demand … nothing but militant action is left to us now’

after the WSPU ‘Women’s Sunday’ march on 21 June 1908, the National Union’s

Great Pilgrimage was ready to challenge that claim by peaceful means on their

impassioned crusade throughout every corner of England. 62

60
Crawford, p. 164.
61
Zachary Michael Jack, March of the Suffragettes: Rosalie Gardiner Jones and the March for Voting Rights
(Minneapolis: Zest Books, 2016), pp. 14-17.
62
“Go Forward!”, Votes for Women, 25 June 1908, p. 7.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

Chapter 3: The Pilgrimage in Yorkshire: An ‘invitation to the open road’ 1

‘And we will show our country now,
What women folk can do’ 2

On the 18 June 1913, a group of men and women set off from the Haymarket in

Newcastle to begin their march for women’s enfranchisement. 3 As one of six major

routes organised by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS),

the collective ‘Great Pilgrimage’ was a non-violent demonstration which would

culminate in a mass meeting in Hyde Park on the 26 July 1913. The six-week march

would see people from all corners of England endure the hardships and dangers of

the road to further their cause. For the Great North Road contingent setting off from

Newcastle, their route along the east of England would take them through tiny

hamlets to large cities, from large processions to violent attacks; with the reception of

the pilgrims as varied as the destinations they travelled to. The Pilgrimage was

reported by local and national press, the NUWSS newspaper, the Common Cause,

as well as in other suffrage and anti-suffrage literature. In this chapter, I will assess

the ways in which the Pilgrimage was reported, how the march was understood as

well as the attitudes towards the Pilgrimage through press responses. As a collective

of non-party and non-militant suffragists, the march was distinctive from militant

activity, yet this was not always widely understood. By assessing the ways in which

the Pilgrimage was reported in Yorkshire, through Ripon, Harrogate, Leeds and

Wakefield, greater understanding can be developed in how regionality contributes to

1
“The Invitation to the Open Road”, The Common Cause, 20 June 1913, p. 1.
2
“Song of the Suffrage Pilgrims”, The Common Cause, 20 June 1913, p. 12.
3
“En Route”, The Great North Road, The Common Cause, 27 June 1913, p. 4.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

the ways in which this form of suffrage activism was understood on a local level, and

how women were received as political bodies in public spaces.

With suffragette militancy dominating the historiography of the suffrage movement, it

can be easy to overlook the important role of non-militant action on the road to

enfranchisement. The idea of self-promotion through spectacle as a suffrage tactic

was nothing new. Major processions such as the ‘Mud March’ in 1907, a London

based demonstration in 1908, several caravan tours as well as Mrs de Fonblanque’s

‘Women’s March’ from Edinburgh to London in 1912, which was credited as the

invention of ‘the march for propaganda’ for women’s suffrage, all set a precedent for

the Pilgrimage. 4 However, the 1913 Pilgrimage was an undertaking of

unprecedented scale for the NUWSS, described in the Common Cause as ‘the

biggest piece of organisation the National Union had ever undertaken.’ 5 The

Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter recognised the scale of the

Pilgrimage just as it was beginning, stating ‘no demonstration so widespread as this

pilgrimage has ever been carried out before by any political movement’ whilst placing

strong emphasis on the non-militancy and law-abiding nature of the march. 6 Schulz,

in her work on American suffrage marches, describes the hikes as a form of ‘physical

activism’, a demonstration of symbolic politics, reaching a collective consciousness

in an ‘unprecedented act of publicity’, contextualising major processions by women

as an effective method of widening the reach of the suffrage movement. 7

4
Tickner, p. 301.
5
Wilma Meikle, “An Old Stager”, The Common Cause, 1 August 1913, p. 4.
6
“Non-Militant Suffragists’ Pilgrimage”, Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter, 20 June 1913, p.
4.
7
Jaime Schultz, 'The Physical is Political: Women's Suffrage, Pilgrim Hikes and the Public Sphere', The
International Journal of the History of Sport, 27 (2010), 1133-1153, pp. 1134-1141.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

The NUWSS was perceived as a middle-class society, failing to garner wider support

in working class communities as the WSPU had successfully done, particularly in

Manchester. The Pilgrimage was an opportunity to reach those communities ‘in their

own homes and villages’ to articulate the real meaning of their movement, not just to

appeal to members of parliament, but to ‘the people of Great Britain’. 8 As the

Pilgrimage began, the Common Cause printed one last ‘invitation to the open road’

on its front page. 9 The impassioned piece states the purpose of the Pilgrimage as a

personal dedication to the suffrage cause through lawful means as well as the

‘outward symbol of the spirit of self-sacrifice’ and ‘unfaltering devotion’ to the

pioneers of the movement. 10 Contributing to the Pilgrimage would be to appeal to the

‘hearts and minds’ of those not yet convinced of the political freedoms of women. 11

When travelling through Yorkshire, the pilgrims required the resolution of their

predecessors, as they had received a mixed response along their route so far. The

Pilgrimage began on Wednesday 18 June with the Great North Road pilgrims setting

off simultaneously with the Watling Street pilgrims from Carlisle. The one-hundred

north-eastern pilgrims left Haymarket in Newcastle to the music of the Wellesley

Training Ship Band, accompanied by a baggage cart marked as ‘law-abiding’ and

two bicycles. 12 The Pilgrimage continued through the North East where Emily

Wilding Davison’s funeral had taken place just days before. Although the Pilgrimage

did not pass by Morpeth where Davison was buried, the atmosphere surrounding the

8
Meikle, Common Cause, pp. 4-5.
9
“The Invitation to the Open Road”, The Common Cause, 20 June 1913, p. 1.
10
The Common Cause, 20 June 1913, p. 1.
11
The Common Cause, 20 June 1913, p. 1.
12
Harry Fairburn, 'The Women's Suffrage Movement in Ripon, Northallerton and Harrogate: 1870-1913', The
Local Historian, 49 (2019), 148-154 (p. 152).

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

suffrage cause, as described by Robinson, was deeply emotive in the area. 13 A

mixed reception of disruptive students in Durham was followed by a receptive crowd

of local minors the next day. The pilgrims first real encounter with violence was in

Spennymoor where the pilgrims had stones thrown at them, although it was reported

in a light-hearted way in the Common Cause stating that ‘neither men nor boys can

throw straight’, as only one person was unintendedly injured. 14 This encounter was

followed by the first appearance of anti-suffrage campaigners from the National

League for Opposing Woman Suffrage (NLOWS) in Northallerton, despite a positive

reception overall from the crowd. 15 It was in Ripon however that the pilgrims

encountered their most challenging confrontation of their journey so far, arriving in

the city on the day of the twenty-fifth annual show of the Ripon and District

Agricultural Society, one of the largest local events of the year. 16 The Common

Cause reported that the market cross in the market place in the centre of Ripon was

used as a platform, surrounded by a crowd including ‘a small gang of youths’,

‘intoxicated men bearing sandwich boards’ with anti-suffrage messages as well as

two ‘exceedingly drunken men brandishing whiskey bottles’. 17 The speaker, Miss Ida

Beaver from the North-Eastern Federation, according to the Common Cause,

attempted to gain the attention of the crowd for over an hour before ending the

meeting. 18 The NUWSS newspaper reported that the audience had closed round the

pilgrims, and it was ‘with difficulty’ they found their way away from the crowd. 19 The

Yorkshire Evening Post reported the event with relish, particularly focusing in Miss

13
Jane Robinson, Hearts and Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote
(London: Doubleday, 2018), p. 173.
14
The Common Cause, 27 June 1913, p. 5.
15
Robinson, pp. 173-174.
16
“Family in a Pig-Stye”, Yorkshire Evening Post, 27 June 1913, p. 7.
17
C.M.G., “Pilgrims from the North-East”, The Common Cause, 4 July 1913, p. 5.
18
The Common Cause, 4 July 1913, p. 5.
19
The Common Cause, 4 July 1913, p. 5.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

Beaver who defended herself with a ‘left straight from the shoulder’ on a ‘rough and

boorish fellow’. 20 Describing Beaver as someone who ‘knows how to take care of

herself in the rough and tumble of the world’, it is clear that the Yorkshire Evening

Post was happy to make Miss Beaver the centre of their narrative, implying she, and

perhaps the Pilgrimage, was less law-abiding and more militant than the NUWSS

were advertising. Robinson states that another local newspaper reported that the

pilgrims were catcalled, spat at, hustled and kicked with ‘coarse brutality and rough

treatment’, with the newspaper condemning the action of the crowd against the

‘refined and educated ladies’. 21 The suffragists were reportedly hammering on doors

appealing for sanctuary for fears for their safety, however very little detail of this was

reported in the Common Cause, possibly because if the true nature of the event had

been disclosed, it could inspire future incidences from anti-suffrage protestors or

deter potential pilgrims from participating in the Pilgrimage. Instead, the Common

Cause chose to place its focus on the kindness of those who helped the pilgrims and

the spectators who were showing interest and ‘listened attentively’. 22 No physical

injury was caused to the pilgrims, however, the corresponding agricultural show

alongside some anti-suffragists denied the pilgrims the ability to speak freely whilst

putting them in danger, with this ‘thoroughly unpleasant’ encounter serious enough

to form part of the inquiry into the behaviour of the police after the Pilgrimage had

finished, which summarised an insufficient and ineffective police presence in

Ripon. 23

20
Yorkshire Evening Post, 1 July 1913, p. 6.
21
Robinson, p. 175.
22
The Common Cause, 4 July 1913, p. 5.
23
The National Archives, Kew, HO 45/10701/236973, Disturbances: Suffragettes' meetings, outrages, etc.,
1913-1914.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

After a much-needed break at Fountains Abbey, which was reported by the

Yorkshire Evening Post, the pilgrims continued their march towards Harrogate the

next day. The Common Cause reported that the pilgrims were strengthened by

members from Hull, Filey and Bradford who met at Ripley, north of Harrogate. 24 The

pilgrims arrived in Harrogate at 5.30pm, where they received a warm reception,

stopping for tea at the Café Imperial before holding an evening meeting on the stray.

Despite their distance from the route, updates of the Pilgrimage in Harrogate and the

activities of local members were published by several newspapers including the Hull

Daily Mail and Whitby Gazette, containing details about the ‘costumes’ of the

pilgrims and a mention of the pilgrims’ song. 25 The Yorkshire Post and Leeds

Intelligencer provided detailed accounts of the progress of the pilgrims, describing

the group of thirty-five as looking ‘remarkably fit and well’, with further comment that

whatever the result of the march, the suffragists’ would ‘lose nothing from a health

point of view’. 26 The newspaper reported a comprehensive list of pilgrims, including

their names and hometowns, listing pilgrims from Edinburgh, Sleights, Newcastle

and Fife amongst the marchers. 27 The article goes on to detail the meeting which

was held on the stray and was attended by around three hundred people, with a

‘cordial reception’ by the audience with no interruption, detailing the suffragists’ plea

for votes for women by ‘peaceful and constitutional methods’. 28 This positive report is

juxtaposed to the Yorkshire Evening Post article describing the turnout of pilgrims in

Harrogate as a disappointment, with an emphasis placed on a lack of support and

24
The Common Cause, 4 July 1913, p. 5.
25
“N.U. of Women’s Suffrage Societies Pilgrimage Through Yorkshire Towns”, Hull Daily Mail, 26 June 1913, p.
2.
26
“The Marching Non-Militant Suffragists at Harrogate - A Meeting on the Stray”, Yorkshire Post and Leeds
Intelligencer, 30 June 1913, p. 10.
27
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 30 June 1913, p. 10.
28
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 30 June 1913, p. 10.

Amy Thorpe Dissertation

hospitality to the visiting pilgrims, with reports of the pilgrims ‘unable to pay hotel

bills’ and having to ‘return reluctant footsteps homewards’, possibly because the

Harrogate meeting lacked the newsworthiness of the previous stop in Ripon. 29 The

article continues with a description of Miss Beaver as the ‘leader of the pilgrims’ and

‘a vivacious Tyneside girl of ideas’ followed by a lengthy quote regarding their

progress along their route thus far, including an entertaining story about their

experience in Durham earlier in the Pilgrimage. 30 The Common Cause, by contrast,

focused on the experience of the pilgrims, details of the hospitality received, the

keenness of the audience and the capabilities of the speakers, noting it was a ‘most

friendly meeting’ with little other detail. 31 The hospitality continued as the pilgrims

attended a church service at Christ Church, High Harrogate alongside the Harrogate

branch of the NUWSS the following day, before continuing their journey south. 32

The Pilgrimage continued to Leeds, with increased press coverage as it headed into

the city. Details of the Leeds Women’s Suffrage Society meeting and forthcoming

plans for the Pilgrimage had already been reported a week before the Pilgrimage

was due to arrive in Leeds, where it was made clear of the constitutional and law-

abiding nature of the suffragists by the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 33 The

Intelligencer continued to report in detail the progress of the pilgrims as they made

their way through the city. Details about a select group of pilgrims, where they took

tea, the numbers of attendees to the meetings as well as local members who joined

29
“The Pilgrim Sisters – Northern Suffragists’ Tramp to London – Story of the Journey”, Yorkshire Evening Post,
30 June 1913, p. 3.
30
Yorkshire Evening Post, 30 June 1913, p. 3.
31
The Common Cause, 4 July 1913, p. 5.
32
Fairburn, 'The Women's Suffrage Movement in Ripon, Northallerton and Harrogate: 1870-1913', (pp. 153-
154).
33
“The Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage”, Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 25 June 1913, p. 12.

You can also read